Florida
3/2007
FAMMGram: Florida bill seeks to alleviate pain of harsh law
Members of Florida FAMM chapters are eager to rev up their recruiting and sentencing reform work. On January 13, Laura Sager, national campaign director, met withmembers in Ft.Myers to discuss the legislative process and the need to repeal mandatory sentences for possession and distribution of prescription pain medications.
Florida law determines the amount of medicine possessed by the total weight of the pills, including any “fillers,” so a person caught carrying just one small bottle of pain medicine without a valid prescription faces a mandatory term of 25 years – the judge has no discretion.
60 Minutes and the New York Times, as well as many Florida news sources, have publicized one example of this colossal waste: Chronic-pain patient Richard Paey, a law school graduate with no previous record, sits in his wheelchair in a Florida prison under a 25-year mandatory minimum sentence. He is certainly no threat to society. Even worse, the state pays for the morphine pump that his chronic pain treatment now requires.
Chapter leaders are discussing the possibility of reform with legislators.While a bill sponsor has stepped forward in the Senate, a House sponsor has to be identified before the legislation can be introduced. In the meantime, FAMM chapters will organize outreach and public education activities in the coming months to support reform initiatives. Florida members will receive additional information via email and mail when and if a bill is introduced.
FAMM needs cases of individuals convicted under Florida’s mandatory minimum drug laws. Families and incarcerated individuals should request a case summary form from Tom Burkert, PO Box 15007, Lansing, MI 48901-5007.
8/31/06
Florida cases highlight prescription madness
Penny Spence and Richard Paey are two Floridians whose lives have been altered by their state's harsh and inflexible mandatory sentencing laws. Their stories were recently featured in a televised segment by reporter Jennifer Santiago on Miami-Dade County's UPN 33/CBS4 television stations.
Spence, is awaiting a 25-year mandatory minimum sentence for possessing 49 prescription pills belonging to her mother, who passed away shortly before Penny's arrest. The charge was later changed to drug trafficking, although there was no evidence she sold pills.
Paey, who suffers from pain caused by muscular dystrophy, is serving 25 years for obtaining pain medication from an out-of-state doctor. Both refused to accept plea bargains because of the stigma attached to a drug conviction and the impact such a conviction would have on their careers.
In the segment, Robert Batey, a law professor at Stetston University and longtime coordinator of FAMM's St. Petersburg chapter, explains how mandatory sentencing laws work and that most people have no idea these laws exist until the affect them personally. Four grams of a prescription narcotic - six pills - trigger Florida's mandatory minimums for trafficking; 28 grams of prescription carries a 25-year sentence. A mandatory minimum is truly mandatory: Unlike other types of sentences, there is no time off for good behavior and no possibility for other sentence reductions.